We stayed in Thompson Bay, Long Island for a few more days enjoying another
beach gathering with those we were sharing the anchorage with. This time we were
blessed with the musical talents of our wandering minstrel friends which made it
a perfect evening. There was another front due – yes, another one, so we opted
to take our leave and head back to George Town via Hog Cay where we’d previously
enjoyed a very pleasant overnight stay on the way up from George Town. There is
always an ulterior motive for choosing this route rather than the more direct
shallow banks route. It’s so we can trail the lures and hopefully catch
something to eat. We had Hog Cay anchorage to ourselves for the whole afternoon
and evening. It was flat calm and perfect for a swim.

Beach fun. ‘Skip’ illustrating how tall he used to be before
living on a boat......getting stuck into the food......and serenaded by our
musos

The following morning we hauled the anchor and headed off into the deep
blue water for the 18 mile motor to George Town. We were trailing a varied
assortment of lures with ‘Skip’ changing one for another every half hour or so
like a crazy football manager using his full compliment of substitutes. We have
green ones, pink ones, shiny ones, dipping and diving ones – the repertoire is
considerable and all can work on their day. But this didn’t seem to be the day
for any of them as we motored closer and closer to the cut from the ocean side
into Elizabeth Harbour. Until that is, over to port about three hundred yards
away we could see a feeding frenzy taking place. On days as calm as this they
are more easily spotted usually helped by a flock of seabirds swooping down to
the surface to grab any bits and pieces the predators have missed. You can go to
all the aquariums in the world and watch fish swimming in a man made environment
but to see this event in the wild with hundreds of fish thrashing around is a
spectacle to behold. This was definitely going to be the only opportunity to
catch something this trip so the autopilot was disengaged and we made a sharp
turn to port with our assortment of dodgy lures slowly making the same turn
behind us.

Experience has shown that driving the boat straight through the feeding
frenzy isn’t the best guarantee of success. The fish tend to forget about
filling their stomachs in order to get out of the way of spinning propellers. So
we skirt round one side of the melee and then turn sharply again to take the
lures straight through the feeding mayhem. As we approached we could see good
sized (for us) tuna leaping clear out of the water but were they in pursuit or
being pursued? It was hard to tell from a distance. When we made the next turn
to present our gaggle of silicone beauties dressed with vicious hooks to the
seething mass of fish it became clear what was intruding on the tuna’s lunchtime
activities. Right in the middle of the shoal on the surface was a large shark
and it wasn’t after what the tuna were eating. They were far too small for shark
to bother with. It and maybe more sharks beneath the surface were eating the
tuna which accounted for the valiant efforts from the shoal not to become a
target meal for the efficient eating machines in their midst. And now our lures
were also passing through that same area. We didn’t fancy hooking the shark or
any of it’s mates that might be lurking. In any case most of the lures
would have been too small (we hoped!).

It was akin to the three cherries coming up on the one arm bandit at the
funfair. Or our American friends might describe it as a duck shoot when decoys
have been deployed. All three lines we were trailing suddenly went tight as we
left the frenzy behind having extracted our booty from their midst. We stopped
the boat to begin the process of pulling the lines in. The starboard line no
longer had anything on the end. Shame. But the port line with three pink
squid-like lures had a tuna on each hook! All three were hauled onboard with the
aft deck beginning to look like a bloodbath. When they were safely ‘in the bag’
we pulled the midships line in. It felt light and empty but surprise, surprise
there was tuna number 4 having given up and raised the white flag. With the
sizes ranging from 5 to 7lb each we had over 20lbs of fresh fish although
skipjacks and of relatively lower meat quality. (You are not complaining are
you? – Ed)

What’s in the bag?
..........
one
tuna.......
two
tuna..........

Three
tuna.......
four!
Voilà!

We motored on to George Town with ‘Skip’ cleaning up as much of the cockpit
mess as possible. Before entering the harbour all four fish were processed in
deep water rather than throw the heads and guts into George Town harbour and
risk encouraging undesirable visitors amongst the swimmers of the anchored
fleet. Tuna spoil quickly as well and are best dealt with before coming into
range of any flies from onshore.

Just a few pence at Hayling car boot sale – the heroes of
the
day
Unhappy sunset - sign of things to come

Our first stop was to gift one of the fish to friends in the harbour as
four was just one too many for us to freeze down. The rest we kept and are
gradually eating our way through . Given the choice, a Mahi or two in the mix
would have been nice. The only place you can select what you take home is the
fish market of the supermarket and you have to pay for those. So we were happy
with our catch. Who wouldn’t be?

To bring events up to date we are now sheltering in Masters Harbour a few
miles from the main anchorages in the area as a low pressure system forms in the
Gulf of Mexico. It will cross the Florida peninsula overnight and head northeast
in the coming days. Winds are expected to be around 25-30 knots at the height of
the event with the possibility of squalls and thunderstorms to 40 or 50 knots.
We get one of these systems once or twice a season and just have to take shelter
and sit them out. At least the fish are quite safe from our or anyone else’s
trolling activities for a few days to come.